Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, May 7, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
lamentation
| |||||||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
Comparative Adverbs in Affirmative StatementsIn affirmative statements, we can use comparative adverbs to describe change or differences between two things within one sentence. What word is used after the comparative adverb in such a sentence? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 The Desert FathersThe Desert Fathers were ascetics who began moving into the Scetes desert of Egypt in the 3rd century CE. By the time the most well-known of the Desert Fathers, St. Anthony of Egypt, died in 356, thousands had moved into the desert and established monastic communities that came to exert a major influence on Christianity. St. Anthony saw withdrawal from society and asceticism as an alternative to the tradition of martyrdom after Rome's legalization of Christianity in what year? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 Beethoven's Ninth Symphony Premieres in Vienna (1824)The Symphony No. 9 in D Minor is the last complete symphony composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. One of the best known works of the Western repertoire, it is considered one of Beethoven's greatest masterpieces. Incorporating part of Johann Schiller's "Ode to Joy," sung by soloists and a chorus, it is the first symphony in which a major composer utilizes human voices on the same level as instruments. How many standing ovations reportedly followed its premiere performance in 1824? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Olympe de Gouges (1748)Born Marie Gouze, de Gouges was a French author whose feminist writings during the French Revolution demanded the same rights for French women that French men were demanding. In 1791, alarmed that the new constitution did not address woman's suffrage, she wrote Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, challenging the practice of male authority and the notion of male-female inequality. Why was she executed by guillotine during the Reign of Terror? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 It is salutary to train oneself to be no more affected by censure than by praise.W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
gentleman's agreement— A legally non-binding arrangement that is guaranteed only by a verbal or mutually understood agreement by the parties involved. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Birthday of Tagore (2023)This date commemorates the birth of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the great poet, philosopher, social reformer, dramatist, and musician of Calcutta, India. In 1913, he was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for literature. Tagore's birthday is celebrated with a festival of his poetry, plays, music, and dance dramas. There are discussions at schools and universities of his ideas on education and philosophy, and screenings of films based on Tagore's short stories and novels made by filmmaker and Calcutta native, Satyajit Ray. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: rubberawareness band, awareness bracelet - An awareness band or awareness bracelet is made of rubber or fabric on which a slogan is written, usually sold to raise awareness for charitable causes. More... Macintosh - A raincoat, named for Charles Macintosh (Scottish inventor, 1766-1843), who discovered how to waterproof fabric with rubber. More... rubber - In the sense of the latex of the rubber plant, it is so called because you can rub out pencil marks with it, not the other way around. More... amorphous - Something amorphous has no real shape or is irregularly shaped—like pudding; an amorphous solid lacks the perfect ordered structure of crystals. Other examples are glass, polymers, and rubber. More... | |